


Kuebiko

by zinniapetals



Series: laws of attraction [1]
Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Gen, Mentions of Violence, Minor Character Death, budding friendships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 12:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,175
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8013331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinniapetals/pseuds/zinniapetals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Looking back on it now, Aoko shouldn't have been so surprised that her first time meeting Heiji and Conan was at a  crime scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kuebiko

**Author's Note:**

> part of an au series I'm writing and this really isn't the first story of the timeline but i just wanted to get this out or else i'll never post it.
> 
> tbh writing honorifics is v strange and awkward for me so forgive me for any wrong usage. also, i really like the idea of Conan and Aoko meeting, not to mention Heiji and Aoko would bond over their terrible short tempers. and i swear, one day i'll be able to write a sufficient summary and good work title.

Aoko sipped her soda slowly, already on her third refill, and still no contact from Kaito whom she texted nearly forty minutes ago asking where was he at. She closed her phone and fiddled with the SD card cover, her eyes scanning the diner out of pure boredom.

Her waitress, Hana, was busy cleaning up a spilled drink due to a kid fooling around while the mother apologized profusely. There were two teenagers, younger than she was, probably on a date if the girl’s incessant blushing was anything to go by. Many tables were filled with parents treating their children to an early dinner and there were some booths occupied by only one person, but Aoko didn’t comment on it, after all she was in the same predicament. There weren’t a lot of people in the restaurant but enough to make a dull sound of overlapping voices that was comforting to her. Her phone buzzed and Aoko took a deep breath to calm her nerves, maybe he just missed his train and was running late..

_Home_

She knitted her eyebrows at the message. Why would he be at home when they had plans to meet up before they went to the stadium to watch the game?

_Why??_

She didn’t have to wait long for the next text to arrive.

_Because I live here???_

Aoko gulped down the rest of her drink, trying to quell the anger bubbling in her chest. She glanced around the restaurant, not finding her waitress so she waved down a random waitress, asking for another refill with a polite smile and turned her attention back to her phone. She really didn’t want to get mad at Kaito so soon after their latest fight, which happened to be his fault yet she was the one who had to apologize but his obliviousness to their plans was beginning to irk her. 

She got up and walked to the restroom after the waitress came back with a fresh soda, checking the stalls to make sure she was alone, then pressed the call button on Kaito’s contact info.

“What?” Kaito’s voice laced with sleep asked, the sound of rustling fabric informed her that he was lying happily in bed.

“Did you forget?”

“…Forget?”

“I can’t believe you!” Aoko shouted, giving up on being calm as she leaned against a stall, watching the door warily in case anyone entered in the bathroom. “You said you’d come!”

“Slow down,” Kaito said, sounding more alert at Aoko’s loud voice. “I still have jet lag and not to mention this stupid brat that sat next to me got me sick–”

“A month Kaito! I’ve planned this a month ago and you said you’d make it even though your flight would arrive here at five in the morning!” Aoko nearly choked on her words, her throat slowly closing in as the back of her eyes began to burn. No, calm down, she thought to herself, there’s no need to get so emotional. She breathed in deeply, and closed her eyes. “Please tell me you really didn’t forget?” 

“Oh,” Kaito said before groaning. “Oh shit. Aoko, I’m so sorry.”

Aoko’s lips quivered at that. Despite planning it so advanced there were still problems, despite it being a day where KID didn’t have a heist her dad couldn’t come due to a notice from the thief, despite the earlier promise Kaito made to her about spending more time with her, all he could do was apologize. She let out a shuddering breath, refusing, _absolutely_ refusing to let the welled up tears in her eyes fall. 

“So you say,” Aoko mumbled, walking over to the sinks where she stared at herself in the mirror. She touched her plump pink lips and grazed her peached cheeks, a pitiful attempt to look somewhat attractive wasted. 

“At least this means you can spend time with your dad.”

“Apparently they haven’t decoded Kid’s latest message so he said he can’t come,” Aoko bristly replied, the name of the thief causing her lips to curl down. “Of course _Kid_ would somehow interfere with my plans right?” 

“I’m sorry,” Kaito said, sincerity dripping from his words but Aoko was so tired of hearing those words, especially from him. “But you can’t blame Kid for this one. It’s the task force’s fault for not decoding the message faster, not like it was a hard riddle this time.”

Aoko scoffed at that, of course Kaito would take Kid’s side.

“It’s fine. Not like this hasn’t happened before.” She winced at how cold and accusing her words sounded, but a small part of her hoped that they stung Kaito.

“I can still make it if I leave right now right?”

“Don’t bother,” Aoko sighed heavily, gnawing her lip as her chest squeezed. “I didn’t even want to watch the game in the first place. I’m gonna catch the next train home.”

“Listen Aoko–”

Aoko flinched at the loud thud that echoed inside the restroom, pulling her phone away from her ear; she stared at the wall next to the sinks where the sound came from. The sound of something breaking caused her to walk to the door, curiosity filling her veins to find out what was going on. 

As she walked out the bathroom, Kaito still on the line but now calling her name loudly, she saw three men leave the bathroom quickly, one gagging and the two others pale white. The door got caught on the doorstopper imbedded in the wall and Aoko gasped loudly, dropping her phone as both hands flew to her mouth in horror.

Stumbling backwards away from the men’s bathroom, Aoko’s feet got caught on something and she fell harshly against the floor. She shut her eyes closed, pushing the gory image out of her mind and opened them again when she heard the rhythmic clack of heeled shoes against the tile. Her gaze immediately flew to the bloody body that was lying between one broken sink and the trashcan, only to see the restaurant’s uniform in her peripheral vision. The door was still opened as a waitress rushed to see what happened, her shrill scream shocking Aoko from her daze. 

Help…she needed to call for help right? She picked up her phone, trying to calm herself as she begun to dial 110, noting that Kaito was no longer on the line, when two people rushed into the bathroom.

Aoko sat up straight at the sight of the younger boy; this was no place for a kid to be! She hurriedly straightened up, walking briskly into the bathroom opening her mouth to tell them to get away from the body when the dark skinned teenager pressed his fingers to the neck of the victim and shook his head slowly to the younger kid. 

“Hey neechan, can you do me a favor and call the police?” The kid asked, turning towards her and gave her an innocent smile.

Aoko numbly nodded her head at the kid’s question, pressing the green call button on her phone and waited for an operator to answer. When she opened her mouth to reply to the operator’s standard question, the teen held his hand out silently requesting for the phone. Aoko handed it over, fumbling with the hem of her shirt unsure of what to do as the male teenager used her phone to calmly relay the name of the restaurant and the fact that division one was needed.

“Hey hey,” the boy said, pulling on her skirt to capture her attention. “Did you happen to see anyone come out of this bathroom?”

“Y-yeah,” Aoko replied, giving the kid a quizzical look before peering into the crowd to see if they were still there. “That guy with the brown glasses and blonde hair, umm…oh the man in the black shirt that’s talking on the phone, and I don’t see the third guy...” 

“Thanks,” he said cheerfully, walking towards to the two people she pointed out and began to talk to the one who just got off the phone.

“What’s your name?” 

Aoko jumped at the hand that clasped her shoulder and turned to face the teen that borrowed her phone, now handing it back to her with a small smile on his face.

“Nakamori Aoko, but please call me Aoko.” She said, taking her phone back and quickly shoving it in her pocket, lips attempting to return the smile. “You are?”

“Hattori Heiji.”

“Nice to meet you,” Aoko instinctually replied, the name sounding familiar but she didn’t care enough to search her brain for connection. She nodded her head slightly before backing up and heading for the bathroom exit. “Well, I should really go so–” 

“Excuse us.”

Aoko moved aside at the commanding voice, facing a policewoman who was staring at her, face not quite friendly but not standoffish either. There were two males behind her, both of them watching her curiously. Police already? That was fast.

“Another detective?”

“Nope,” Hattori answered, pointing to the right officer as he introduced her to them. “Aoko-han, this is Officer Sato of Division One, Inspector Megure is the one with the hat and Officer Takagi is the other one.” 

“Neechan is a witness!”

Aoko stared down at the kid that seemed to pop out of nowhere and looked as he grinned and confidently nodded, pointing to the two men that were stationed near the bathroom exit, the crowd from earlier gone.

“She said she saw those two men leave the bathroom at the time the crime happened!”

“You sure about that Conan-kun?” Officer Takagi asked, although his face didn’t look doubtful at the boy’s words. 

“Mhm! She was also the one who made the call to the police!” Conan chirped loudly, getting closer to Hattori and Aoko cringed at the cheerful tone despite what happened.

“Oh? Is that true?” Inspector Megure asked, suspicion written all over his face.

“Y-yes,” she stammered, not sure why the kid said that when Hattori was the one who told the operator when and where this incident occurred.

“Well, can you please tell me everything that led up to your discovery of the body?” Takagi asked, taking out a notepad and gave Aoko a gentle smile. “Are you here with anyone?” 

“Am I being considered a suspect?” Aoko’s asked, her voice hitching with hysteria with the weight of five different gazes examining her. She just used the bathroom to make a call and now she was being suspected of murder? What was going on?

“No no,” Sato quickly said, sensing the panic rising in the teen. She smiled and gently touched Aoko’s shoulder, trying to calm the heaving girl. “We need your statement of what happened, assuming you were in the general vicinity when this murder occurred.” 

“Alright,” Aoko faintly said, her heart still beating rapidly and palms sweating at the predicament she was in. “I was making a call–” she pulled out her phone and shoved it at the officer, “you can check my call log! But I heard a loud bang, which a shattering sound quickly followed. I don’t know why I got out of the bathroom, but when I did I saw three men exit, two of them are over there and the door was left wide open and that’s when I saw the body.” 

Aoko finished her story; her mouth extremely dry and she glanced at the corpse. She had avoided looking at it when she came in, taking in the blood that was collected around the neck of the victim, dripping down his chest and eventually pooling around him and the hand marks that streaked the wall. Her stomach lurched at the sight and she grimaced at the actions of Hattori and Conan, she assumed that was his name according to what the policeman said, searching around the crime scene as if there wasn’t a dead body close by. 

“Thank you very much,” Takagi said, closing his notebook and peering over to Sato’s hand where she was looking at Aoko’s phone. “Yes, it seems that you did call the police close to when your call ended, however you could have made the phone call to buy yourself an alibi–” 

“Wait, you just said I wasn’t a suspect,” Aoko shrieked, her panic rising again as she watched the female officer glare at her partner. “I would never take another person’s life. Even if I wasn’t a daughter of a police officer, I would still have high morals to live by!” 

“Oh? Who’s your father?” Inspector Megure asked, interest piquing at her words.

“He’s head of the Kid task force, Nakamori Ginzo.”

From her peripheral vision, she saw Conan turn her way with a weird expression on his face. She shuddered at the thought of a kid much younger than her so unfazed about the gruesome scene that lay out before them. 

“I see… Well we have more questions for you _as a witness_ ,” Sato said, directing the last part towards Takagi with a stern look on her face. “So can you please come with me?”

Aoko nodded and followed the officer out the restroom and into the woman’s restroom, where she pointed out where she was when she heard the noises. She then spent five minutes each describing the men’s attire, her memory a bit fuzzy but positive of the expressions and movements that each man made as they exited the bathroom.

She walked over the her booth after Sato released her saying not to leave the restaurant because they may have more questions for her and sat down, releasing a huge sigh as she sat down. She glanced around the restaurant, most of the costumers also not being able to leave gossiping in hushed whispers. Her chest ached at the memories the murder scene brought up, awful memories she tried to store deep away, coming to the surface. Aoko sighed again as rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palm pushing the images of a boy crying over his father back into the depths of her mind where it belonged. 

“Are you okay neechan?” 

Aoko internally groaned at the childish voice, wanting to be left alone for at least a few minutes, moving her hands away from her eyes and gave a minute smile to Conan who stood next to her table. 

“I’m fine, thank you for asking,” she replied. She stared at him in silence, waiting for him to say something but when he didn’t, she decided to make small talk, an easy topic that will keep her mind busy. “I didn’t know you also helped the police out with murders.” 

“Eh? I’m just a kid,” Conan laughed, rubbing the back of his neck at Aoko’s comment. “I can’t help out the police.” 

“But you help the police when it comes to matters with Kaitou Kid,” Aoko said confused. She should have recognized this kid’s face earlier but with all the chaos she didn’t even realize that he was the famous Kid killer until Sato-san mentioned it in the passing. Detective Sato also said that this child even helped the police solve quite a few cases by helping them figure out clues through abstract ways.

“Well, those are usually a request from a friend of a friend,” he admitted. 

Conan got up and slid into the booth, opposite of Aoko where he could still see the crime scene as well as the rest of the employees and costumers that weren’t allowed to leave yet. “Why are you here? Were you waiting for someone?”

“Something like that,” Aoko said, laughing slightly and used her napkin to wipe the water that dripped around her long forgotten soda. “How about you? Are you with your family? I didn’t see you in the restaurant earlier.” 

“I’m here with a friend,” Conan said, all smiles as he easily answered the question. “Do you remember who was here earlier?” 

“Hattori-san seems a little too old to be your friend,” Aoko murmured looking behind her shoulder at the young detective who was conversing with Takagi. “I was here for a while, so I remember the faces that were here the same time as me, probably.” 

“I don’t think friendship has an age limit,” Conan said, playing with an extra napkin on the table. “Did the three men come in after you?”

Aoko hummed at Conan’s reply, her eyebrows scrunching in confusion as she was following the young boy’s lead and answered his question.

“The one that is missing came in a couple minutes before I used the restroom. I think the man with glasses was here before me, and the other man was brought to his booth a while after I sat down.” 

Aoko looked down as she finished her answer, stopping the movement of her fingers as she noticed she was absentmindedly shredding her napkin into little pieces. As she gathered the trash up in a little pile, she was reminded of Kaito’s trick with the newspaper. Kaito! He was probably wondering what happened to her…maybe. He hadn’t tried to contact her since their call ended so maybe he didn’t hear the scream the waitress made, or maybe he hung up long before that. Aoko bit her lip and blinked twice, focusing on the young boy’s questioning gaze.

“I’m sorry. What?” 

“I asked if you noticed anyone acting suspiciously during your time here.”

“Not really,” Aoko answered, pushing the trash pile aside and focused all her attention to the boy in front of her. “If you aren’t helping the police then why are you asking all these questions? Not even Officer Sato asked me this.” 

“Well,” Conan stalled, thinking of a good lie to tell her. “I’m thinking of being a detective when I’m older, and I really like the help Heiji-niichan with cases!” 

It wasn’t a lie per say, Shinichi realized, he did plan to become a detective when he graduated and he did like to occasionally help Hattori out but when Aoko beamed brightly at that, he felt bad for omitting the truth to such a naïve person. 

“That’s great that your following on your dream, but you shouldn’t really rush into a crime scene like that.”

“You sound just like Ran,” Conan mumbled, Aoko tilting her head at that. “Oh, she’s somewhat my guardian and now that I think about it, you two kind of look similar. Don’t worry though! I’m used to being around crime scenes so I’m really careful!” 

“Is that so?” Aoko asked, words of worry for the boy coming forth but she stopped and recalculated, refusing to get sidetracked from the real issue here. “Still, you should have left it to Hattori-san, after all, you _are_ a chi-”

“So did anyone else get near the bathroom?” Conan interrupted, a flash of annoyance crossing his childish features. “Before _you_ came rushing in of course.”

Aoko frowned at Conan’s words that made it seem she was the irresponsible one here. Huffing, she laced her fingers together, thinking back to the flash of striped red and black uniform that belonged to the servers of the diner. 

“Hmm, I know that there was a waitress.”

“What about a waitress?”

Hattori’s question made his presence known as he stood by the table. His easy going natured look from when he asked Aoko her name was now gone and replaced with a pensive stare as he shoved his hands in his jacket’s pockets. 

“Aoko-neechan was just telling me something,” Conan said, his voice sounding extremely childish and Aoko frowned at that. He didn’t sound like such a whiny kid when he was questioning her earlier, did he?

“Not really,” Aoko said, awkwardly laughing at the fact that she could tell Hattori information that had nothing to do with the case. She tensed at the way Conan’s pointed looked and ended up saying more. “Well, maybe? I just said that Conan-kun should leave this kind of stuff to adults..”

“But there was no one around, well not counting the crowd that was forming,” Hattori replied back, raising his brows at what Aoko said.

“Well, I mean, there was a waitress there that screamed but I guess in hindsight she couldn’t really do much compared to you.”

“How many waitresses?” 

“One?” Aoko replied, uncertainty coloring her answer, eyebrows furrowing at Conan’s question.

“There’s a storage closest next to the men’s bathroom,” Conan loudly mumbled, eyes widening as he gasped and looked at Hattori.

Hattori tsked loudly as he pieced together what Conan was implying, grabbing Aoko by the wrist and pulled her gently out of the booth and back to hallway where the two bathrooms and storage closest was. 

“What’s wrong?” Aoko apprehensively asked, pulling her wrist away from Hattori and rubbed it gently. “I told the police everything-”

“Where were you standing?”

“I was actually on the floor,” Aoko corrected, blush forming at the truth. She lifted her hand and pointed near the trashcan, where she had a perfect view of inside the male’s restroom. “Around there.”

“ _If_ what you said is true, then the culprit must have hidden themselves in the restroom, maybe in a stall, because the two suspects we did ask said they didn’t see anyone else in the restroom except the victim using the urinal and they used the stalls which means-” 

“That they are lying or the murderer either left before or after the three men did but before you two rushed in,” Aoko finished, understanding what Hattori was trying to say. “But that was a small time frame…even then, I was watching the door the whole time! There’s no way anyone could have done it.”

“Was there an interval when you weren’t watching the door?” Conan inquired, his childish tone long gone and Aoko made a mental note to bring that up later on. 

She sighed heavily and looked at the ground, disappointment welling up to her as she confirmed that yes, there was a moment that she wasn’t even aware was what going on.

“Don’t be down,” Hattori said, clasping her on the shoulder firmly. “I’d be surprised if that scene didn’t shock you!”

“But, let’s say they didn’t hide in a stall but somewhere else,” Conan murmured, scrutinizing the handle to the supply closest door. “I’m going to ask Officer Takagi if forensics can do a luminol test on this door.” 

Aoko watched Conan go into the bathroom, his head tilting slightly like a little puppy as he asked something that caused the male officer to laugh and shake his head. She bit her lip nervously as Conan said something else, the two other officers whipping their heads toward him and then to the supply closest. As Inspector Megure moved towards the sinks where the forensic team was cleaning up, Hattori saw Aoko’s eyes instinctually move to the corpse, where it was being put in a body bag, and recognized the sadness and relief that was in her eyes.

“Do you remember anything else?” Hattori asked, trying to get Aoko’s mind of the body.

“No…” Aoko trailed off, moving out of the way as Conan walked over with Sato and another person.

She watched as the cop sprayed the area with luminol and then shone a backlight against it revealing a handprint and blood behind the handle. Conan smirked at that and Aoko shuddered a bit. That was unnatural, wasn’t it? She sighed loudly and went back to her booth as Hattori, Conan, and Officer Sato began to discuss the possibilities of what this meant. Honestly, she was so tired and ready to go home.

“Seems like we’ll be wrapping this up soon.”

Aoko nodded at Hattori who slipped into the booth and got comfortable, his left hand rubbing the back of his right hand inattentively.

“So you know who the murderer is?” Aoko asked, tapping the table softly. 

“It could be Yamazaki-san,” he pointed to the man in the black shirt, “who borrowed thousands of yen from our victim and was in no hurry to return it or it could have been Watanabe-san,” pointing to the guy with glasses, “who was recently fired due to our victim ratting him out about stealing money from the company they both worked at.” 

“So you’re saying that they both had a reason to him?” Aoko asked incredulously, both of the reasons sounding so petty to resort to murder. “But aren’t those reasons too weak? They killed someone in a public place! Why would they kill someone over something that can be resolved peacefully?” 

“I dunno,” Hattori said, shrugging and then sighed at Aoko’s teary eyes. “Trust me on this, acts of passion are much more common then you think. They don’t realize they’re going to kill someone but then it happens, however, this could be planned so the third guy you saw is out of question-” 

“Why not?” Aoko interrupted, not really caring as to how they ended up finding the dude but as to why was he not a suspect.

“Because they never even met. The guy was a foreigner that came to the wrong restaurant when trying to meet up with an online friend, he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

“I see,” Aoko muttered, feeling somewhat guilty of her statement for putting the guy under suspicion of being a murder suspect. “So all you need is the murder weapon and who did it?”

“We already found the murder weapon,” Conan said, walking to the side where Hattori was sitting and sat next to him. “It ended up being in the storage closest, but that means that we have a third suspect on our hands that _knew_ the supply closest would be open and thus tossing it-” 

“But that would cause the employees to be suspects right?” Aoko interrupted, frowning at Hattori. “Didn’t you say that the two men were the main suspects?”

“Did you?” Conan asked lips pursed in what resembled annoyance. “We both saw their hands and clothes, not to mention they would have disposed of any bloody clothing in the trashcan which would have been easy to identify.” 

“Or if they planned this, it would have been easy to unlock the door earlier during their time here and set their plan in motion whenever they wanted,” Hattori reasoned 

“There were no pick marks on the lock Hattori,” Conan reasoned. “Unless they worked here or knew someone really well that would give them a key then there’s no way they could have entered the supply closest on their own.”

Aoko furrowed her eyebrows, listening to what they were saying but finding no place to ask what she wanted to know. In all honestly, she wasn’t even sure why she was so interested in this case. She should have been on a train right now, heading home, but here she was, listening to a high school detective and a child discuss a murder that had nothing to do with her. A tiny part of her knew exactly why she was so talkative with these two, that _they_ actually paid attention to what she had to say and made her feel important. She coughed slightly, blinking back those intrusive thoughts.

“So,” Aoko started, when there was a lull of silence between the two underage detectives. “Does that mean they would have been a regular here in or took multiple trips to the restroom today to prepare?”

Conan blinked in surprised at her accurate assumption while Hattori gave her a sharp grin.

“And that’s where you come in,” Hattori said, a smile on his face. “Don’t look like that, you’re actually helping us a lot!”

“What else do you want to know? I’m pretty sure I told the cops and you two everything I know.”

“Do you remember if any of them left for the restroom and returned before you saw them both come out of the restroom?” 

“I–” Aoko stopped herself, she was already involved in this mess, so it’s not like talking more would matter all that much. She sighed softly and thought back, remembering when the glasses man dropped his drink and went to clean up. “Watanabe-san left to use the restroom and returned quite a while later and I can’t recall if Yamazaki-san used it.” 

“I see…”

“You don’t believe me?” Aoko asked Conan, the younger boy frowning at her answer.

“No, it just…” Conan looked at Hattori who also seemed to be on the same train of thought.

“Back to questioning the suspects and the people who work to see who came here often and who knows who?” Hattori asked, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb. “This is going to be more tedious than I thought.”

Aoko heart raced as her phone buzzed and she quickly pulled it out, frowning at the text she received from her father rather than someone else. The sound of heels clicking against the floor broke her frustration and she tensed, her stomach flipping at the image the sound brought up.

“I’m sorry, but do you want me to get that for you?”

Aoko looked up and nodded slowly at her waitress, Hana, who was serving her earlier that day. She handed over her cup that she asked for which seemed like so long ago with careful precision as to not let the overflowing soda spill over. The waitress smiled faintly at Aoko’s thoughtfulness and took the cup and shredded napkin that was still in a pile before heading towards the kitchen.

“What’s wrong neechan?”

Aoko stared at Conan. Officer Sato did mention that he was perceptive on the strangest things, but to the point where he noticed her slight hesitation upon Hana’s arrival? He was scarily observant, almost on par with Kaito she mused, placing a carefully smooth smile on her lips and she shook her head.

“Well, she was the one who found the body,” she replied. “So I was wondering how she was holding up. I’m sure anyone would still be in shock after seeing that.”

“You seem to be fine,” Hattori commented, an eyebrow raised at Aoko’s composed nature and he began drumming his fingers on the table. 

“Poker face and all that,” Aoko quipped back, her face flushing a bit at those words. “Anyways, I’m going to go check up on her.”

“Wait,” Hattori stopped drumming. “You said she found the body first?”

“Yes.”

“No, the redhead over there,” Hattori pointed to another waitress, one who was crying on the phone, “said she found the body first.”

“Did she?” Aoko stared at aforementioned woman’s feet, flats. She _did_ see a waitress there, the one who screamed must have been the redhead but she was positive that Hana was there first, the sound of her heels were a testament to that. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter who found the body first, she still saw it and that alone would shake anyone up.”

“Hey, doesn’t she look like the person on Masahi-san’s phone?” Conan asked, further explaining at Aoko’s failed attempt to hide her interest. “The victim, Masahi-san, had a lot of pictures of a girls on his phone, but there was one that always showed up. That waitress definitely looks like her…but she didn’t say anything when the detectives asked huh?”

“Nope.” Hattori leaned back, his eyes following the waitress when she returned form the kitchen. “Of course, if she had something to hide then she wouldn’t say she was one of the people who found the body or-”

“Was even there at all,” Conan said, matching Hattori’s train of thought. “I’m gonna go talk to her.”

“Wait,” Aoko blurted out, her hand reaching out to stop him from leaving. “Isn’t that dangerous? Shouldn’t you be stopping him?”

Hattori shrugged and Conan laughed at that, promising Aoko that he’d be safe and left before she could get a grip on him. Aoko knew better than to probe around things that had no place for her, after all, that's what kept her in Kaito's good graces for a while now. However, seeing a child talk to a murder suspect, not that she suspected the timid waitress, left a bitter taste in her mouth. 

Hattori on the other hand was texting on his phone, not batting an eye to the child left in his care. Aoko saw the Osakan cringe at something on his phone but didn't pry, she was sure the teen wouldn't have any qualms telling her but she was intruding so much as it is.

She sighed heavily, looking at her own phone, no text from Kaito yet. Aoko peeked over to Conan who was nodding slowly at whatever the now crying waitress was saying. 

"Should you really leave him alone like that?" Aoko asked, her voice full of concern for the kid she just met. "You're his friend right? Maybe you should go over and make sure he's alright."

"Nah, he's fine," Hattori said, shrugging off Aoko's concerns. "Does that look like someone in danger to you?"

Hattori did have a point. In fact, it looked like Conan was purposely pushing the waitress buttons since he was pointing in the direction of the police yet she was violently shaking her head no, but that was just absurd right? There was no way a kid could manipulate the truth out of a grown woman, _right_? 

“I still think it would be better if you went over there as well..”

“But then maybe our suspect won’t talk as much,” Hattori said, laughing slightly at Aoko’s concerned frown. “You’re just like Kudo’s girl.”

“Who?” Aoko asked, her eyes trained on Conan who was focused intently on Hana as she talked rapidly. “Are you sure he’s going to be okay?” 

“Mouri Ran! Also known as my best friend’s girlfriend. She and Conan are _really_ close so whenever he gets into his detective shenanigans, she starts to get really motherly over him and stuff.” Hattori laughed at that, as if it was an inside joke between him and someone else. “But don’t you worry, Ku-Conan’s done this hundreds of times before. He’ll be fine.” 

“Is that really something to be proud of?” Aoko murmured, feeling a bit sorry for the young boy who had to deal with this so often. “I’m going to assume that you’re partly to blame for Mouri-san’s worrying.”

“Well, you’re not wrong,” Hattori said as he laughed. “Hey, you never said why you were here though.” 

“I planned to go to a baseball game around here with my friend but-oh! He’s coming back. Why is he smiling like that?”

Aoko shivered at the smirk Conan wore, forcing herself to calm down and remember that this was a child she was staring at. It just wasn’t normal to be this happy at a crime scene, unless…Aoko gasped and she covered her mouth. Did this mean Conan found out that the waitress was the killer? Wait no, Aoko thought, biting her lip as she tried to rationalize. There’s no way even if Hana was the killer, she wouldn’t reveal herself so easily, after all, she went through the trouble of lying to the police and hiding the weapon. Aoko groaned internally, she was supposed to be rationalizing, not jumping to conclusions that the waitress did lie and hide the weapon. 

“Don’t underestimate that kid,” Hattori said, his lips curling up, as Conan got closer to their table. “He may look like a child but-” 

“I _am_ a child Heiji _-niichan_ ,” Conan bit out stressing the honorific, his previous smile transforming into a scowl. “Please ignore him, he says he’s a detective but he’s quite dense when it comes to certain things.” 

Aoko nodded and watched as Conan reached for his bowtie before freezing, laughing softly as brought his hand down. 

“Almost forgot I came with just you.”

“So tell me what you found,” Hattori prodded, his chin resting on his palm, one eyebrow quirked in interest. “Did she confess?”

“Of course not,” Conan scoffed. “Turns out that her and the deceased are childhood friends. They knew each other for over twenty years, but the past few years of their friendship have been rocky ever since she confessed and he didn’t return her feelings. However, she said she rather be friends than nothing at all, so she eventually moved on and got engaged when suddenly it was cancelled.” 

“Masahi-san must have told her fiancé something and then she found out? In a rage she murdered him and now she’s trying to cover her tracks,” Hattori mumbled, his lips curled in disgust. “Is that what you’re thinking?”

“There could be other reasons, but revenge is the most likely choice.” 

“How cruel,” Aoko whispered, her face drawn with horror. “And you two, aren’t you simply jumping the gun? Evidence! You need evidence right?!” 

“There was a knife thrown into the storage closest, and it’ll be easy to pull prints off the handle. She either must have used her apron as a shield as to not get her uniform stained with blood.” Conan pointed out, face apathetic to Aoko’s failed attempt to rebuke their claims. “She’s not wearing one.” 

Aoko saw the redhead waitress pass by them, going outside to finish her call and noted the white apron tied around her waist whereas Hana had no such thing around her waist. 

“But then the two other suspects? Didn’t they have a motive as well?” 

“It could have been coincidence that they decided to show up today, but from what she said, Wanatabe-san and Yamazaki-san were frequent costumers and since she was the waitress she could have easily arranged it so that they went to the restroom around the same time.”

“And if she was as close to Masahi-san as she says, she would have know about the internal conflicts between them which made us and the police more suspicious of them and lessened the pressure on herself.” Hattori added, putting together the final pieces of the puzzle. 

“I see…” Aoko mumbled, her eyes now focused on marks that were indented in the table. “So what now?”

“Now we’re going to go back to the scene, gather our suspects, and then unravel the truth behind this murder,” Hattori informed her. 

“Hmm, well good luck with that,” Aoko chirped, forcing herself to give the two detectives an encouraging smile.

“You don’t want to come?” Hattori asked, tilting his head at the girl who was looking at a spot above his shoulder. 

“I’m fine, I should be going anyways now that I’m not needed anymore.”

“Hey neechan, don’t leave yet!” Conan said, his pitch higher than before and Aoko’s frowned at that. It was like he was putting on a façade for specifically for her. “I have something to ask you.” 

“Alright…” Aoko replied suspiciously, peeking at Hattori who also looked surprised at what Conan asked. “I’ll wait.”

She silently watched Conan run ahead, grabbing Officer Takagi and pulled him aside to whisper something in his ear to him while Hattori walked toward the restroom, presumably getting the two other officers. Honestly, what was she doing with her life while a child almost half her age was already making connections with important figureheads and solving murders? 

Aoko silently laughed at that and pulled out her phone, clicking on the Internet icon and typed in Hattori Heiji, bypassing the wiki page on him and going straight to his fan club page. Might as well do something while waiting for the two boys to be finished, not to mention she was curious as to why she felt like she knew who he was.

“Neechan?”

Aoko jumped at Conan’s shrill voice, quickly shutting her phone off, hiding the forum that talked about the rival romance between Hakuba and Hattori.

“You’re finished already?” She politely asked, putting her phone back in her pocket. “That was quick.” 

“It’s been nearly thirty minutes.” Hattori answer, quirking his brow at Aoko’s fidgeting

“Ah. So what did you need Conan?”

“Hmm, I forgot,” he said cheerfully, setting his weight on his heels as he hummed. “I’m bored Heiji-niichan. I wanna play more.”

“Maybe we should take this outside?” Aoko suggested, gathering her things and left the booth, her legs buzzing from sitting too long. She walked out of the restaurant, the sudden chill made her wrap her jacket around herself tighter, stopping a bit away from the restaurant’s door and watched as the cops put the waitress in their patrol car. 

“Hey hey, Aoko-neechan! Do you have any more plans?” Conan asked, tugging on her skirt and gave her a brilliant smile. 

“Well, no, I was planning on heading home before this,” she emphasized what this was with a wave of her hand. “I think I might stop by the baseball stadium first and hand these off to someone who wants them.”

“Hand what off?”

Aoko pulled out her three tickets for the baseball game, Conan’s eyes dimming a bit at that while Hattori gasped loudly at the team name. 

“That’s the game you were talking about neechan?” Hattori grimaced at Aoko’s inquisitive stare, backtracking quickly. “Sorry force of habit, but that game has been sold out for months! You’ll definitely be able to get some buyers.”

“Oh? I wonder for how much I’ll be able to sell this,” Aoko murmured, at least one good thing came from today, she supposed, waving the tickets lightly. “It’d be nice to have extra spending money-” 

“I wanna watch a baseball game too Heiji-niichan!” Conan whined, now pouting in Hattori’s direction. “Buy them off her!” 

“No way, I don’t have that kind of money.” Hattori scoffed, scowling at Shinichi’s spoiled brat act. “Plus you don’t even like baseball!” 

“But,” Conan looked down, and began to sniff, his little body shaking at Hattori’s words. “You’re a meanie Heiji-niichan!”

“Don’t cry,” Aoko blurted out, bending down and gently laid her hand on Conan’s shoulders trying to soothe the boy. “Look, I’ll give these tickets for free to Hattori-san. How does that sound?” 

“I want you to go too neechan!”

Aoko cringed at the loud wail and stared at Hattori to help her out, the other teen looking equally confused at Conan’s behavior. Surely this was an act? There was no way such an intelligent kid would be throwing a tantrum in public like this. 

“O-okay, I’ll go too,” Aoko said, finally caving into Conan’s request, the younger looking up, no sign of tears, and grinned happily at her. “Wait a second-”

“Yay! Let’s go! You want to go too right Heiji-niichan?”

“Well, yeah but,” Hattori looked at Aoko who was squinting at Conan, her face veiled, hiding what she was thinking. “Y-yeah! Lets go! I hope you don’t mind?” 

“No no, that’s fine,” she said, getting up and brushed imaginary dirt off the front of her skirt, giving the duo a strange smile. “Let’s go.”

- 

Aoko was dragging her feet, a block away from her house, the day’s events finally catching up to her. The baseball game lasted three hours and Aoko should consider herself lucky to be able to catch the last train home. Despite it being late at night, the temperature was quite high, and she sweated profusely due to the amount of people in the stadium making her more than eager to run home and take a shower and go to sleep. Sure she had fun with Hattori and Conan, the younger one constantly making quips at Hattori and initiating easygoing conversation with Aoko, making easy to forget that he was an elementary student. Although, now thinking back on it, she probably should have made them go home early so Conan wouldn’t miss his bedtime, even if he insisted that he’s pulled more all-nighters than she could imagine.

She snorted loudly, glad that there was no one on the streets to her the ugly laugh, as she remembered Hattori’s phone call. Halfway into the game when he received the call, his face suddenly paling at the voice on the other side and he quickly asked Conan if he informed Ran of their change in plans, the younger one blanching at the question as he pulled out his own cellphone. She didn’t mean to eavesdrop, but it was hard not to, especially when the girl on the line was practically screeching insults and threats at Hattori then becoming deadly silent at Hattori’s mistake of mentioning Aoko was there too. It took all the strength Aoko had to keep quiet and not ask Hattori if it was Toyama Kazuha on the phone and if it was true that they were dating, after all there were many _many_ threads about their relationship on the fan site she visited.

Although, the game wasn’t as bad as she thought it would be, it left a bitter taste in her mouth after she pieced together that the only reason why Conan wanted to go was to keep her mind off the murder that happened. After Hattori boasted about how they were able to pin down the waitress, Aoko felt her mood drop and no matter what Conan tried, and boy did he try a lot, she couldn’t get back to her blissful state of ignorance. How pitiful was she that a mere child had to go out of his way and make sure she was all right. 

She huffed loudly, kicking a rock that was in her way, cringing as it hit a car and made the alarm go off. She started run, afraid that the owner would come out, not stopping until she was in front of her house, heaving and coughing for air. She leaned against the gate, sliding down until her butt hit the floor, legs giving out as she started to sob uncontrollably. 

“Hey, idiot, is that you?”

Aoko quickly looked up, Kaito’s hands full with grocery bags, and croaked out his name, a fresh wave of tears following.

“Aoko!” 

The sound of glass breaking and other things falling caused Aoko to quiet down, chastising her self for making Kaito worry so much. One of Kaito’s hands was on her shoulder, the other one forcing Aoko to look up at him. His eyes traced her face with such intensity that she couldn’t help but tremble.

“Are you hurt?

She shook her head.

“Are you okay?”

She nodded her head.

“Bullshit,” Kaito scoffed, getting up from his kneeling position and pulled her along. He walked around her, giving her a once over, the teenage girl sniffing at rubbing her eyes roughly, trying to catch her breath so she could answer him. “What happened?” 

“Nothing-”

“Don’t lie to me,” Kaito scowled as he was in front of her again, grabbing both her hands and checking them, sighing in relief when he found nothing wrong. “Aoko, why are you crying?” 

Aoko giggled at that. How the roles have reversed, she mused, wiping away the tears that travelled down her chin and neck. How many times has she been the one interrogating with no luck at getting the truth and now Kaito wanted answers. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

“Oi, Aoko. Don’t do that. Stop,” Kaito said softly, watching Aoko break down. “Hey!

Aoko trembled as Kaito’s arms wrapped around her, squeezing her tightly, so tightly that she feared he would notice how fast her heart was beating. She grabbed onto the back of Kaito’s shirt, forcing herself not to cry. 

She was thankful that she wasn’t immune to the horror of death unlike other people; in fact, she thought she would never be able to be so blasé about it. The three other times she’s witness death clouded her mind. Her stomach churned with nausea and she held back a heart-wrenching sob. That was in the past, in the past, she chanted. Don’t think about it, _stop thinking about it._

“Aoko?” Kaito asked again, his voice much lowered and dripped with apprehension.

“They were best friends…”

“What?”

“They were best friends and they loved each other!” Aoko shouted, pushing away from Kaito who did not let her get farther than an arm’s length away. “She was happy and it wasn’t with him and he didn’t like that so he ruined it! He lied to her and ruined her life but you know what the sad thing is?”

“What are you talking-”

“She still loved him!” Aoko interrupted, on a roll, the words she’s been mulling over now gushing out. “He lied to her and broke her heart but she didn’t care because she _loved_ him but he didn’t care about that love! He trampled all over it! He broke her heart, and ruined her life, so she killed him and that whole fucked up thing is that she still loves him! But that’s no excuse right? It’s sad Kaito, it’s so sad that everything could have been avoided with the truth.”

Aoko rambled on, not even sure what she was saying, her frustrations and anger that she’s kept in spilling out. Her hate for this woman she barely knew, the hate for taking a life so easily, the hate for her saying that she loved the man yet murdered him in cold blood, the hate for Kaito who is staring at her like she’s something to be pitied.

“It’s so sad, so messed up. Why did she do that? Why are people like this?” Aoko mumbled. “There was so much blood Kaito, and-”

Aoko gagged, the image of corpse fresh in her mind and now that she had a stomach full of sweets and stadium food, she could feel the acidic reflux crawling up her throat. 

“Look at me,” Kaitio demanded, grabbing a hold of Aoko’s face by pressing his palms on her cheeks, and made eye contact with her. “Take a deep breath.”

“I can’t-” 

“Take a deep breath and keep your eyes on mine.”

Aoko inhaled deeply, her lungs burning from the previous exertion, and exhaled noisily; entranced by the burning indigo gaze that dared her to look away. 

“Now slowly and calmly tell me what happened after our call got disconnected.”

“There was a murder at the restaurant where I was waiting for you and I was a witness,” Aoko summarized, feeling her previous nausea and hysteria slip away and being replaced by exhaustion.

“How are you feeling?”

Aoko hesitated, Kaito’s thumbs rubbing the top of her cheekbones soothingly making her lose her focus as she leaned into his left palm and sighed.

“Terrible.”

It was an understatement, but she was sure Kaito got the gist of it. He didn’t say anything, maybe he didn’t feel the need to, and she was thankful for that because she was sure he had questions but as of right now she just wanted to stay like this. She wanted Kaito to keep his hands on her, for him to continue to swipe away the tears that fell loose, to keep his gaze on her as if she was the only thing that mattered. As if suddenly hyperaware of their situation, Aoko looked away, blushing and wishing that this was happening for another reason rather than her freaking out. 

“Kaito?” 

“Yes?”

Aoko grabbed Kaito’s wrists and moved them away from her cheeks, the night chill making her shiver at the loss of heat. She released them and took a step back, watching as Kaito made a step to move forward as well but stopped at the sight of Aoko’s fresh tears.

“I’m sorry I’ve been a terrible friend lately.” Aoko held a hand up at Kaito’s indignation, willing for him to be quiet and listen to her first. “I know you being busy and coming home late and going days without even replying to my texts is nothing new, but I can’t help but worry you know? I care about you Kaito, I really do! And it’s hard not to but I know sometimes I act like it’s my duty to act as your mother while Chikage is out enjoying the Vegas nightlife,” she heard Kaito huff, her own lips lifting in to a small smile as she continued, “but it’s because I care about you, not because I’m trying to be overbearing and whatnot. Look, I can’t say I won’t nag and complain at you anymore, because we both know that’s not true but all I ask is a little leeway.”

“I thought we talked about this already?” Kaito asked, coming forward, his hand reaching out towards Aoko but then stopped hallway, dropping his arm. “Aoko, didn’t I already tell you that I’d try harder to hang out with you more?”

“Yeah but clearly you aren’t upholding that promise,” she bit back. 

She was tempted to tell him that it was his fault she was in this state of disarray. That she was probably going to have nightmares and terrible dreams of past horrors due to today because he didn’t show up on time. That she was going to remember things she really didn’t want to because he chose sleep over her. Instead, she sighed deeply, biting back all those words because they weren't the truth and Kaito didn't deserve them.

“Aoko…” Kaito trailed off, his face pleading for her to understand, and Aoko could feel her own heart break a little at that.

“It’s fine. That’s fine,” she said, cutting off Kaito as he tried to say something else. It was always something else with Kaito, never the truth. “I’m really tired, so I’m just going to go to sleep. Goodnight Kaito.” 

Aoko moved to her gate, purposely making her movements slow, giving Kaito a chance to stop her anytime he wanted, he didn’t. She walked into her house, not looking back to see if Kaito was still there, but chances are he was, probably picking up all the groceries he dropped earlier.

Her dad was knocked out on the couch, a microwaveable dinner on the cushion next to him and she tittered at that, picking it up and placing it on the table in front of the tv. She reached for the remote, a report about KID’s upcoming heist this Wednesday informing her that the task force figured out all the details, and shut off the television.

Walking into her room she hit the lights, throwing her purse and phone on her bed, faltering when she saw the mess on her desk. She grabbed the multiple manila folders that were strewn about and checked for traces of anyone checking them. Aoko gathered them, not caring if they were in proper order and stashed them in her little compartment that was cut into her desk, a trick she learned long ago from Kaito’s dad, clicking the lock shut and prayed that her dad didn’t see anything. 

Her phone buzzed and Aoko jumped to her bed, snapping it open only to frown at the name in the sender line. She typed out confirmation to Hattori that she made it home safely and to tell Conan thank you for worrying about her. Well, if there was one good thing that happened today, it was that she made two friends, even if one was a mini-sized detective that seemed to be more than what meets the eye.

**Author's Note:**

> hopefully no one was too ooc ! and yes, can u tell that i love the headcanon that Aoko is much smarter than she acts?


End file.
